Welcome to Nuffield College Library

Nuffield College has an excellent large research library, regarded very highly by academics and students alike. Its main purpose is to support the College's research interests in the Social Sciences (economics, politics and sociology) but as well as being a college library for members of Nuffield, it also admits postgraduate students, researchers and staff from the rest of the University.

Following the foundation of the College in 1937, the growth of the Library​ was largely a post-war development, and its basic stock was greatly enlarged and improved by the purchase in the 1950s of the library of G.D.H. Cole. Located mainly in the College's 11 storey tower, the collection now totals about 105,000 books, along with over 400 journal titles and about 120,000 government publications.

The library stock has overlaps with a surprising number of different libraries in Oxford, but duplicates none in its entirety. There are excellent historical collections on labour and political history, plus extensive Trade Union and Political Party​ material. In addition, the Library also holds a small number of rare or unique publications, as well as collections of unpublished papers, many relating to individuals or projects associated with Nuffield College. They include the personal papers of Lord Nuffield (William Morris), G.D.H. Cole and Margaret Cole, and material relating to the Nuffield College Social Reconstruction Survey. Among the other unpublished papers held by the Library are the personal papers of Lord Cherwell (Frederick Lindemann) and one of the most important collections of William Cobbett archives. Please see the Archives page for further information.